Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and method for pressing a dough part.
Description of Related Art
Pressing, pinching, punching (or squeezing or clamping together of) dough parts commonly takes place in processes where dough parts should be adjacent or connected during at least a part of a preparation or baking process. In the process of baking croissants for example, the tips of the legs of a croissant are pinched in order to keep the croissant in its curved form, despite of a bias or tension in the dough that tends to straighten the dough product. During the baking, the tips of the legs may or may not separate or be separated again.
The benefit of a pressing or pinching operation as such is known per se. The European Patent EP 2 316 270 by the present applicant discloses a method and device for pinching dough parts, in particular tips of the legs of a croissant. This method has proven to be effective in many cases, but a need for further improvement is felt, in particular when it is not desired that the tips of the legs of a croissant separate. The international patent application WO 2011/144191 discloses a device for forming dough pieces comprising a shaft that pinches dough parts. However, the solution proposed in this document brings the risk of damaging the dough parts, either by leaving an undesired mark on them, or by smearing the dough over the conveyor band.
It is a goal of the present invention to provide a method and device for pressing a dough part that lacks the above disadvantages.